a house for hermit crab

Joseph can sometimes get into these silly moods...

He was reading "a house for hermit crab" by Eric Carle to our kids. On each page hermit crab finds a friend that he tenderly, carefully, or gingerly (etc.) picked up and placed on his shell. But instead of reading the words "and placed on his shell," Joseph decided to say in a loud voice, "and smashed it to pieces." I don't know how funny this sounds, but we laughed so hard. Ansel especially would loose it every time and wanted to hear the story again. good times.

(on a side note, joseph's behavior was inspired by the soup nazi episode of sienfeid. the soup nazi didn't know his armour was for elane or he would have taken a hatchet and "smashed it to pieces" instead of giving it to her.)

pronouns

My sister let us borrow her "the princess and the pronoun" book and I LOVE it. I don't really remember learning much grammer/parts of speech until I learned spanish. Isabel seems to be picking it up better than I did. Tonight she was reading me a book that said, "Mike opens a word window. Guess what Mike sees?" Isabel stopped and said, "Why didn't they use a pronoun? It would be better with a pronoun." I asked her how she thought the sentence should read and she said, "Guess what he sees?" I was pretty impressed. Thanks to Cindy for letting us borrow her parts of speech books for extended periods of time, we are putting them to good use!

funny funny mother

So, I remember one year my mom read this to us and we laughed so hard. She could barely get through the story. I just read it to Joseph and I was laughing uncontrollably (tears were coming down my face!) He did not think it was as funny as I did, but maybe you will enjoy it!

See Mother - See Mother laugh - Mother is HAPPY.
Mother is happy about Christmas.
Mother has many plans for Christmas. Mother is organized.
Mother smiles all the time - FUNNY, FUNNY Mother.

See Mother - See Mother smile - Mother is HAPPY.
The shopping is all done. See the children watch TV.
Watch children, watch.
See the children change their minds.
See them ask Santa for different toys!
Look, Mother is not smiling - FUNNY, FUNNY Mother.

See Mother, See Mother - See Mother sew.
Mother will make dresses - Mother will make robes -
Mother will make shirts. Look - Mother put the zipper in wrong!
See Mother sew the dress on the wrong side.
See Mother cut the skirt too short.
See Mother put the material away until January.
Look, Look. See Mother take a tranquilizer - FUNNY, FUNNY Mother.

See Mother, See Mother buy raisins and nuts.
See Mother buy candied pineapple and powdered sugar.
See Mother buy flour and dates, pecans and brown sugar, bananas and spices and vanilla.
Look, Look. Mother is mixing everything together.
See the children press out cookies.
See the flour on their elbows.
See the cookies burn. See the cake fall.
See the children pull taffy. See Mother pull her hair.
See Mother clean the kitchen with the garden hose - FUNNY, FUNNY Mother.

See Mother. See Mother wrap presents. See Mother look for the end of the scotch tape. See Mother bite her fingernails. See Mother go. See Mother go to the store 12 times in one hour!
Go Mother, go! See Mother go faster. Run Mother, run.
See Mother trim the tree. See Mother have a party. See Mother make popcorn.
See Mother scrub the rug. See Mother tear up the organized plan.
See Mother forget the gift for Uncle Harold. See Mother get the hives!
Go Mother, go! See the far-away look in Mother's eyes.
Mother is disorganized. Mother is disoriented - FUNNY, FUNNY Mother.

It is finally Christmas morning. See the Happy Family.
See Father smile. Father is happy. Smile Father, smile!
Father loves his new neckties. Look, Look. See the happy children.
The children will remember this Christmas.
See Mother. Mother is slumped in a chair. Mother is crying uncontrollably.
Mother does not look well. Mother has dark ugly circles under her blood-shot eyes.
Everyone helps Mother to bed. Mother sleeps quietly under heavy sedation.
See Mother smile - FUNNY, FUNNY Mother.

happy halloween a month ago

I just realized that I never posted these photos....Lincoln was a frog, Ansel was Buzz Lightyear, and Isabel was Cinderella. Ansel fell asleep in the car on the way to trick or treating and was not in the mood for photos, but we got a pretty good one after at the house. The kids took turns handing out candy. They were SO excited every time the door bell rang. Every year I get WAY too much Halloween candy. So, this year I was trying to take it easy, but we had more trick or treaters than ever. I guess next year I will return to my old philosophy of: you can never really have too much candy!

happy birthday ansel!!

I thought it was so funny that Ansel picked a ladybug cake this year because we found a pretty awesome train cake. But he does like ladybugs. We go to the library every week and let the kids pick out one movie. EVERY week Ansel would pick out this educational video about ladybugs. He would walk right up to it's location on the shelf and get it. We would even try to lure him into choosing another movie, but he stuck with his decision.

I can't believe Ansel is three. It's so funny to see how different from Isabel he is. We sure love his sense of humor. Last night Ansel was making us laugh so hard that Joseph was crying and he had to leave the room. Ansel is practicing sharing with his little brother. Lincoln LOVES the car Ansel got for his birthday (as you can see above). We are sure glad Ansel was born!

happy birthday Lincoln!

The photos posted in the wrong order...oh well. I love the photo where he is jamming cake into his face. Lincoln is one year old (Nov 18th)! He liked playing with his new toys (almost as much as Isabel and Ansel) and he LOVED his birthday cupcake. Lincoln has such a cute smile and laugh. I love his little giggle. Sometimes Joseph makes him laugh a little too hard/loud in church and I give him dirty looks, but I really like it.

Lincoln loves getting attention from his older siblings, especially Ansel. He is quite a mama's boy...cries when I leave the room or wants me to pick him up when I'm working in the kitchen. However, Lincoln has had two very successful babysitting experiences this month so we are very proud of him. He is kind of obsessed with ceiling fans. I think it's because his tall dad will hold him up so high and let him pull the strings and actually touch the fan. It's funny when I pick him up and he reaches for the high cord because he doesn't understand that I'm too short to get him high enough. Lincoln also LOVES to turn on and off light switches. He has been walking for a little while now and just practiced walking in shoes for the first time today. He pretty much hated it. But, he practiced a lot because I let him walk around in the garage. (He loves to look at and touch all the junk we store in there....it's heaven.)

update

Here are some photos of the kids. Lincoln was not in the mood to have his picture taken, but I thought the picture turned out pretty funny.

I can't believe how fast the time is going by. We are just so busy, but trying to keep life slow so we can enjoy all the moments. Ansel woke up in the middle of the night a few nights ago and Joseph went down to tuck him in and found Isabel up and getting dressed. This is funny for several reasons. First, it was 3:45am. Second, every morning we have the same converstion: Isabel, it's time to get dressed. But, mom WHY do I have to get dressed? Because that's what we do every day before you go to school. But, mom, I don't want to. I know Isabel, you told me yesturday and the day before...

Isabel got an award for good behavior at a school assembly this week and a free kids meal at Applebees. While we were eating Lincoln started doing this huge fake laugh and we all though it was SO funny. He really has become quite a character. It's cute seeing him get older and more interested in playing with Ansel. He LOVES attention from Ansel. The other day Ansel was spitting out a toy potato at Lincoln and he was laughing SO hard. I tried it and Lincoln just picked it up and handed it to Ansel. ha ha ha. Ansel loves to cheer up Lincoln when I change his diaper or when he is cranky in the car.

Anyway, that is a quick update. Life is crazy, but so good.